‘Quietly competent’ public service during COVID-19 notable, says union president, as stakeholders take stock of bureaucracy’s future role

‘What’s impressed me, is the dog that didn’t bark,’ says former clerk Wernick. ‘We haven’t had any major IT failures, bottlenecks or collapses—not everything has been perfect, but generally things have gone quite well.'

Liberal MP Greg Fergus, left, PIPSC president Debi Daviau, centre, and former clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick, right. 'I’m incredibly amazed at the level of front line work that our members are engaged in as part of this pandemic, from developing CERB and other benefits, to making sure that public servants could work from home [which] was key to keeping operations going, to developing tests for COVID-19 to converting labs for disinfectant,' said Ms. Daviau.The Hill Times photographs by Andrew Meade, Sam Garcia, and Jake Wright

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BY MIKE LAPOINTE

May 13, 2020

It’s been an “important year for the public service” and “interesting to see” how Canadians have instinctively turned to the public sector for help, says former top federal bureaucrat Michael Wernick, with the president of Canada’s second largest public sector union saying there are “s...

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